“For incoming freshmen at western Connecticut’s suburban Brookfield High School, hefting a backpack weighed down with textbooks is about to give way to tapping out notes and flipping electronic pages on a glossy iPad tablet computer,” Stephanie Reitz reports for The Associated Press.
“A few hours away, every student at Burlington High School near Boston will also start the year with new school-issued iPads, each loaded with electronic textbooks and other online resources in place of traditional bulky texts,” Reitz reports. “While iPads have rocketed to popularity on many college campuses since Apple Inc. introduced the device in spring 2010, many public secondary schools this fall will move away from textbooks in favor of the lightweight tablet computers.”
Advertisement: Limited Time: Students, parents and Faculty save up to $200 on a new Mac.
Reitz reports, “Apple officials say they know of more than 600 districts that have launched what are called ‘one-to-one’ programs, in which at least one classroom of students is getting iPads for each student to use throughout the school day. Nearly two-thirds of them have begun since July, according to Apple. New programs are being announced on a regular basis, too.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
As much as I love Apple, and the iPad, this is nuts. It’s one thing to drop a book, It’s another to have a $500 device slide off a desk.
Invest 50 bucks on a good case and let the ipad dropping begin
Vicmacs, got children? No? Well, since you’re good with numbers, why don’t you underwrite the iPad insurance policy for the class?
as for the other ipad advantages: totally outweighed by logistics. textbooks are cheaper and, yes, more durable in the long run because they require no administrator to keep them charged and running. in the hands of children, expect them to:
1) forget to charge them
2) lose them
3) drop & shatter the glass at least once
4) find some way to screw up the software or settings in a manner that requires administrative assistance
5) use the device for inappropriate uses at inappropriate times
6) take no responsibility for its safe return
7) expect the device to be waterproof, snowproof, mudproof, and uncrushable
Parents won’t be happy to pay for these “oops”, and nor will the school district. Dumb idea.
Which brings me to the only criticism I have of the design of the iPad: IT’S TOO SLIPPERY!
It’s kinda heavy for its size, and very sleek and smooth, which means you need to hold it securely. After holding it for a while that can get kinda difficult without putting your thumb(s) on the touchscreen.
There’s an anti-slip skin on its way to my place from China right now (the only U.S. companies who had ’em wanted about $40 (!!!) for shipping to Oz – fantastic way to lose a sale, IDIOTS!), so problem soon solved.
But I still would’ve preferred a non-slip surface to start with.
The iPad is as slippery or not as you want it to be. If it had a no-slip backing, it would be very difficult to slip the iPad in and out of cases or sleeves. It’s best how it it is and for individuals to decide how best to protect it.
wanted about $40 (!!!) for shipping to Oz – fantastic way to lose a sale, IDIOTS!),
What do you think that shipping costs them?
-jcr
we know its about $7
Dunno how much it costs them. My gripe is that they insist on using the most expensive shipping available, with NO option for anything cheaper. $40 shipping for a $13 item?!
So, I ended up getting an anti-slip skin, a dock (normally about $30 here) and a spare USB/30-pin cable from 2 different places in China, all for less than $23 INCLUDING SHIPPING.
I got a Belkin silicon skin for $2 in the clearance bin for my iPad.
Silicone skin, I hope. Sorry, but that’s a pet peeve of mine and many technical people make the same mistake. You don’t compute on silicone and you don’t use silicon for implants.
Chemists of the world, unite!
That’s a pretty silly reason to keep schlepping a bag full of books around all day.
I’m really happy to hear stories like this because it means that more consumers are buying iPads, at least in small amounts. What really worries me is that these textbook to iPad stories are not as widespread as I might wish them to be and that it is likely 1% of the schools in the U.S. that are doing this and most schools aren’t even considering switching to iPads or even worse, choosing some “open source” Android tablet or even Kindles, again leaving Apple out of the loop.
As an Apple shareholder, I’d be giddy to hear that even 5% of middle schools and high schools were considering adapting this switch, but I know it can’t happen because Apple can’t produce that many iPads and Apple probably doesn’t care enough to give the education sector much of a break on prices to please the iHaters wanting $200 high-quality tablets for everyone.
From these stories, the best I can hope for is a changing of attitudes and a hope that more consumers learn about the good side of Apple products. However, I won’t live in any hopes of any major share price gains since Apple’s revenue has nothing to do with its share price, however even slight upward movement in share price is far better than downward movement.
Apple has a really good chance to make some impressive market share gains, but it’s just not that an aggressive company to take advantage of this opportunity and some other company like Microsoft or Google will. Those companies will happily fill the demand by flooding the consumer market with cheap junk which will make Wall Street very happy.
Dude, have some perspective! Reading your post makes me feel sorry for you. Cheer up! Apple is doing so well now. iPads are being adopted not only by schools, but also by big corporations. There is a lot of momentum going for Apple. Adoption by businesses and other institutions is only going to grow and grow.
If I didn’t know anything about Apple and I came across your post, I would come away thinking that Apple is being mis-managed!
When school districts all over the country are laying off teachers and other workers, it’s not likely — or reasonable — for them to have a big push to buy iPads. Every penny counts.
If every penny counted, most American kids wouldn’t be getting a third-rate education. Unforunately, the American educational system has much bigger problems than whether or not to replace textbooks with iPads.
“hefting a backpack weighed down with textbooks is about to give way to tapping out notes and flipping electronic pages on a glossy iPad tablet computer”
Great. One less bit of exercise our kids are going to get.
A backpack full of books is not as healthy as you might think. Just look at all the research on backpacks. Better yet, look at the spine curvature of teenagers today. What do you see???
Scoliosis is not related to backpacks – it’s completely genetic. As far as back pain goes, if you choose not to use both straps and distribute the weight evenly, that’s your own fault.
My comment was about the dramatic decline in physical activity that our kids engage in today – schools eliminating gym class, the increasing popularity of video games, and the lack of interest in engaging in team sports; not to mention the fattening of our food choices (in schools as well as in the supermarkets).
My 10 year old daughter’s backpack weighed as much as 40 pounds some days last year. I don’t care how many straps you use, that is not healthy.
She get’s her exercise from soccer, basketball, tennis, golf, swimming and more.
Good, keeping her active!
Though genetics are important, they are not the only cause of scoliosis. Like anything else in life, it’s not that simple. Trauma can also be an extremely significant causal factor. Trauma can destabilize prorioceptive mechanisms, creating complex compensatory dynamics. Bent kids can grow crooked. Is habitually carrying a 40 lbs backpack on one shouder a large enough trauma? Probably not… But possibly for some kids it is a big problem.
Healthy lifestyle starts with the parents. So here is a message to you fat lazy parents. Want to save your kids life of living unhealthy, fat, sicklly, lethargic, porky pig looking face? Then get off tour own lazy fat ass and put up a good example for your kids, because by 2030 half of the US population will be officially Obese!
Currently the US is número UNO for the most OBESE/Fatlardbutt people on the planet. How embarrassing is that?
Lugging a heavy pack around is not healthy exercise, it’s wear and tear on the body.
No one has mentioned the fact that many school boards will no longer be held hostage to the Texas anti-evolution anti-science christian text book approval system.
Are you joking? Someone still has to approve the content and apps that are installed on these things. And, if recent history is any indication, it won’t be an open-minded, “what’s best for our children’s education and future” mentality that prevails. It will be the “religious right” with their anti-science dogma and religion-specific “family values” that they feel comfortable force-feeding the citizens from kindergarten on…
No, he’s not joking. Due to the limits of print publishing, it means a no more one-size-fits-all approach where one state (say Texas, for example) gets to indirectly affect the educational content of text books for another state due to the influence Texas has with publishers because they order so many text books.
Due the inherent nature and flexibility of a digital-only publishing and distribution model, publishers can provide text books with content that be customized not only to fit state-wide educational requirements, but individual school districts as well… or even individual schools.
Digital also means that text books (and other learning materials) can be updated/corrected (far faster and less costly) as new knowledge becomes available.
Potentially, schools with this approach will be able to provide better educational opportunities than those who don’t, and they won’t be held hostage to school district leaders in other areas with a less advanced outlook.
Of course this won’t happen overnight, but the handwriting is on the wall.
As someone who has lived in Texas for over two decades, I fear that the Lone Star State and some of our midwest and southern neighbors will still wield far too much power over textbook content.
School kids will no longer be limited to the resources in the standard issue electronic books, but can get source information from the entire Internet.
That gives them the world’s encyclopedia at their fingertips, if they are taught how to use it properly.
Many textbook companies are still charging almost as much for electronic versions as for printed versions of their textbooks. Not good at all. And there are still limited texts available in general. Once those issues are fixed, and drop protection, this will clearly be the way to go.
How much weight does the iPad gain per average school book? I expect the number of electrons must be enormous just for one of those text books. Yeah I know ONE electron is pretty light, but what about the billions of electrons added up.
If only I knew how much a mole of electrons weighs and how many moles per text character then we could get somewhere.
Mass of electron is approximately 9.11 X 10^-31 kg and one mole is 6.022 X 10^23 particles. Multiply them and one mole of electrons has a mass of ~ 5.486 X 10^-7 kg or about 0.55 mg.
If you actually want weight, then 0.55mg weighs about 5.382 micro-Newtons or about 1.21 millions of a pound.
A mole of electrons represents about 96,500 coulombs (6.2415093×10^18 elementary charges), or roughly the total quantity of electrons transferred in a 1 amp current over a period of 26.8 hours.
1.21 millionths of a pound…
One mole is 100,000 billion billion particles. A text character is stored in one byte/8 bits – it does not require that many electrons.
At some point in the future, I’m sure the entire school desktop will be an iPad.
I wish my school could do this. Unfortunately our district faces budget cuts every year and we barely have enough money to pay teachers at a 38:1 student:teacher ratio. I spend a few thousand a year on supplies and books for individual students, so the money just isn’t there for something as cutting edge as a school full of iPads.
It’s going to take a massive cultural shift away from right-now profit fetishism toward long-term vision and planning for the majority of public schools to make great decisions like this one even possible.
Why don’t schools who don’t have the budget start the ball rolling by allowing iPads as an option? They could allow parents to buy iPads at a reduced price with the savings coming from the school not having to buy books. Additionally, funds could be raised by bake sales, raffles, etc…
Because you can’t squeeze blood from a stone. 90% of our students are on free and reduced lunch because their parents don’t make enough money to pay full price. It follows that no bake sale or raffle is going to raise enough for a $2 million iPad and licensing order.
Also, individual schools do not have the option to forgo textbooks. If the district adopts a textbook, all schools within the district must adopt it as well. And while they are expensive, they are also a lot more durable than iPads, and districts only adopt new textbooks every 5-8 years. The difference in cost is huge, particularly considering the current ebook site license prices McDougal-Littell, Holt and Prentice Hall charge. Do the math: $100 per textbook versus $500 per iPad (plus licensing costs per title). Add costs for lost/damaged units and turnaround time for replacements and a district that’s barely making ends meet simply cannot consider an iPad investment.
That is exactly why they should move toward the iPad and away from the textbooks. Have you checked how much those texbooks cost? How about how much to check them each year, warehouse them, replace them and increased health costs.
See reply above. It’s going to take a pretty healthy infusion of revenue into any struggling school district to make this type of move possible. Or a huge iPad price drop.
If the rate of adoption keeps up, maybe they will introduce a less expensive kids-friendly “school version” pre-loaded with the tools schools need.
i just really hope that they didnt have to pay 500$ for each ipad. Are these private schools or public schools? My high school doesnt even allow electronics, that we bought(!) to be used for educational uses. I just hope these schools arent taking tax payers’ money to look “professional”…